Python Program to Implement Merge Sort

This is a Python program to implement merge sort.

The program sorts a list by merge sort.

1. Create a function merge_sort that takes a list and two variables start and end as arguments.
2. The function merge_sort will sort the list from indexes start to end – 1 inclusive.
3. If end – start is not greater than 1, then return.
4. Otherwise, set mid equal to the floor of (start + end)/2.
5. Call merge_sort with the same list and with start = start and end = mid as arguments.
6. Call merge_sort with the same list and with start = mid and end = end as arguments.
7. Call the function merge_list, passing the list and the variables start, mid and end as arguments.
8. The function merge_list takes a list and three numbers, start, mid and end as arguments and assuming the list is sorted from indexes start to mid – 1 and from mid to end – 1, merges them to create a new sorted list from indexes start to end – 1.

Here is the source code of a Python program to implement merge sort. The program output is shown below.

def merge_sort(alist, start, end):
    '''Sorts the list from indexes start to end - 1 inclusive.'''
    if end - start > 1:
        mid = (start + end)//2
        merge_sort(alist, start, mid)
        merge_sort(alist, mid, end)
        merge_list(alist, start, mid, end)
 
def merge_list(alist, start, mid, end):
    left = alist[start:mid]
    right = alist[mid:end]
    k = start
    i = 0
    j = 0
    while (start + i < mid and mid + j < end):
        if (left[i] <= right[j]):
            alist[k] = left[i]
            i = i + 1
        else:
            alist[k] = right[j]
            j = j + 1
        k = k + 1
    if start + i < mid:
        while k < end:
            alist[k] = left[i]
            i = i + 1
            k = k + 1
    else:
        while k < end:
            alist[k] = right[j]
            j = j + 1
            k = k + 1
 
 
alist = input('Enter the list of numbers: ').split()
alist = [int(x) for x in alist]
merge_sort(alist, 0, len(alist))
print('Sorted list: ', end='')
print(alist)

1. The user is prompted to enter a list of numbers.
2. The list is passed to the merge_sort function.
3. The sorted list is displayed.

Case 1:
Enter the list of numbers: 3 1 5 8 2 5 1 3
Sorted list: [1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 8]
 
Case 2:
Enter the list of numbers: 5 3 2 1 0
Sorted list: [0, 1, 2, 3, 5]
 
Case 3:
Enter the list of numbers: 1
Sorted list: [1]

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